Investor Presentaiton
Kaganovich on the Jewish Issues
Another major separation between Kaganovich and other Jewish revolutionaries is his
apparent lack of interest in Jewish issues. Besides a brief mention of the Beilis case of 1911,
which occurred while he was still in Kiev, Kaganovich refers very little to his personal ethnic
background or issues related to it. 134 Kaganovich and his brothers also refused to join the Bund
early on, and instead opted for the Bolshevik Party. 135 Zionism is one issue he does mention, but
only briefly and negatively. Kaganovich describes the affinity he held in his youth for the
prophet Amos, who he saw as a defender of the poor and an advocate of personally tackling
oppressors; in 1912, he mentions using Amos in a Bolshevik context when speaking out against
Zionists saying Amos fought against rich oppressors like the Zionists in Kiev, especially
"millionaires Brodsky and Ginzburg.'
"136 In another instance, he proudly boasts on how he
"bullied" Zionists in his youth. 137 His claims about Zionism are supported by his later
interactions with the Zionist movement, which he never supported, and even went on to call
racist, imperialist, and war-like. 138
In fact, rather than address Jewish issues, Kaganovich's memoir is filled with overt
expressions of his class consciousness and sense of connection with other poor workers. His
memoirs, if completely genuine, show evidence that these sentiments began early in his
childhood in the village of his youth, where he was surrounded primarily by other poor families
134
Kaganovich, Pamiatnye zapiski, 85-86.
135 Rees, Iron Lazar, 6.
136 Kaganovich, Pamiatnye zapiski, 41.
137 Chuev, Tak govoril Kaganovich, 190.
138 Kaganovich, Pamiatnye zapiski, 47.
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